Widow of labor leader Harry Bridges dies

PALO ALTO, Calif. (AP) Noriko Sawada Bridges Flynn, a writer and civil rights activist who married labor leader Harry Bridges and later married one of his rivals, died Feb. 7 at the age of 79.

Flynn's first marriage, to International Longshoremen's and Warehousemen's Union leader Bridges, took place only after the couple forced a change to a Nevada law banning interracial marriages.

Her second marriage, after Bridges' death, was to Ed Flynn, who represented the shipping lines that Bridges fought against.

Flynn was born in 1923 in Gardena, the daughter of Japanese immigrants. As a teenager, her entire family was interned for three years at an Arizona camp. After release from the camp, she moved to Berkeley and became active with unions and an interracial committee.

She met Bridges in 1958 and they went to Reno, Nev., later that year to elope, but initially were rejected before a frenzy of publicity cleared the way for the wedding.

Flynn became active in the fight for reparations for Japanese-American internees. Her poem, ``To Be or Not to Be: There is No Such Option,'' was read at a ceremony when the U.S. government apologized for the internment.

After Bridges died in 1990, she developed a close friendship with Ed Flynn, a widower and retired president of the Pacific Maritime Association. They married in 1994.

She is survived by her husband; a daughter, Katherine Bridges Wiggins of Bandon, Ore.; a stepson, Robert Bridges of Fremont; and a granddaughter, Marie Shell of San Francisco.

(Copyright 2003 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)